Short-term rental requests rising in Newport

Tuesday

Homeowners are going through the process the legal way since city started cracking down.

NEWPORT — Winning approval to operate a guesthouse in a residential zone that would allow daily and weekly rentals is no easy process, but one couple took the first step this week.

The Planning Board approved Monday night the application of David and Cassandra Earle, at 2 Evarts St., to convert their detached garage and studio apartment into a one-bedroom guesthouse, with the stipulation that an owner be present on the property when it is being rented. They live in a separate single-family home on the property.

The board found the plan consistent with the city's comprehensive land use plan and recommended to the Zoning Board of Review that a special-use permit be granted to the proposed guesthouse.

The board continued action on a proposal to convert a two-family home at 11-13 Brewer St. into a “resident manager managed seasonal guesthouse,” at the request of the applicant’s attorney.

A proposal to convert a single-family home at 173 Broadway into a four-bedroom guesthouse was on the agenda as well, but was withdrawn by the applicant prior to the meeting's date.

The city is seeing an increasing number of applications from residents hoping to use their homes in residential districts to cash in on the growing trend of short-term rentals through internet-based services such as Airbnb, Homeaway, VRBO, HomeToGo, HolidayHomes and other internet sites. All these applicants must seek a special-use permit from the zoning board, which first requires a Planning Board recommendation.

The city is working on refining guidelines and procedures for the application process. The Planning Board has formed a “Short Term Rental Investigatory Group” that includes attorneys and members of the community. They will make recommendations to the City Council for possible inclusion in a revised city ordinance. The group, which is chaired by Planning Board member Jeff Brooks, will hold its next meeting on Thursday, beginning at 6 p.m. in the Rotary Room of the Newport Public Library.

Brooks said more than 20 people from the community besides the group members attended the last meeting on June 28.

Attorney Christopher J. McNally of Newport represented the Earles before the Planning Board on Monday night and presented the proposal, with Cassandra Earle answering the board’s questions.

Cassandra Earle said she and her husband had been renting the studio apartment on a short-term basis without problems until receiving a letter from the city late last year.

In late November and early December, the city sent out 243 letters of warning to property owners who were identified as possibly renting out their apartments, condominiums or homes on hosting websites without registering these short-term rentals with the city as required by ordinance.

This was the first result of the City Council's hiring of Host Compliance LLC, based in San Francisco, in June 2017 to identify all short-term rentals in the city and monitor compliance with state laws, local ordinances and regulations, and to determine whether those rentals are paying room taxes. The company uses computer software to monitor short-term rental websites.

Those letters led to multiple property owners calling City Hall departments for clarification, Zoning Officer Guy Weston has said.

McNally pointed out to the board members that the Earles' property abuts a commercial industrial zone, the area on the southern section of Connell Highway where businesses like Aardvark Antiques and Bridge Liquors are located.

The Earle family is always present when guests are on the property, McNally said. Cassandra Earle said she interacts with the guests when they are seeking information about Newport.

“We have not rented the studio apartment long-term,” Earle said. “We are very selective about who we rent to. It lends itself only to rental to couples or single people.”

Brooks called the set-up “perfect” for a short-term rental arrangement and the rest of the board agreed.

Moving into an apartment or home for a few days, with no owner present, is a common model for people using sites like Airbnb. Just handing over the keys of your home to a renter for the weekend and then leaving is not allowed in any of Newport's residential districts, Weston has said.

The Earles must now go before the zoning board, which may present its own challenges.

The staff report from the Planning Department says the rental property should be brought up to today's building code requirements, which could mean the installation of modern fire sprinklers.

Attorney Turner Scott, a member of the Planning Board’s investigatory group and who spoke at the meeting on a different subject, had a client with a lot on Annandale Road with a single-family home where she lives, and a second building on the same lot that she has been renting out on a long-term basis. The client decided to instead use that second small apartment building for daily and weekly short-term rentals, and went to register the guesthouse with the city clerk's office.

City Building Official William Hanley informed the client that she was changing the use of the property and therefore must install fire sprinklers.

That would have cost $23,000, Scott said, and the client abandoned the plan.

sflynn@newportri.com

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